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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Gnosis in Song will be performed at Rothko Chapel

Last year for the Codex Judas Congress, I put together a concert of Gnostic prayers, hymns, and poems which I call "Gnosis in Song". This will be reperformed on Friday, May 15, 7 p.m. in Rothko Chapel. See poster for details.

Since the Gnostic texts contain so many performance pieces that were originally liturgies used in Gnostic worship, I wondered what the experience would be like to hear and see them performed, to bring them alive from the written page. I also used as inspiration the idea, "What if? What if the Gnostic traditions had become orthodox rather than the Catholic?" So I approached Sonja Bruzauskas, a well-known mezzo soprano in Houston who is the artist behind Divas World, and asked her to set some of the liturgies I had translated to medieval chant music. She was excited and asked Becky Baxter, a well-known harpist in Houston, to join her. When they invited me to hear what they came up with in the studio, I was shocked. They had achieved beyond what I could imagine.

So this is it. This is the only reperformance of the materials scheduled. We are very fortunate that Rothko wanted to hold this second performance a year after the Codex Judas Congress performance. The performance is free, but admission is limited to the first 200 guests.

Also, there will be airing at noon Wednesday the 13th on KUFH, npr station out of the University of Houston, during FRONT ROW show, an interview with Sonja, Becky and I about "Gnosis in Song." Sonja and Becky perform three pieces during the interview.

On a related subject, presumably you are aware of the very small number of other compositions featuring extracanonical texts? The only genuinely "Gnostic" one is probably Gustav Holst's "Hymn of Jesus" (from the Acts of John), which I listen to with my students every time I teach my "Heresy" course.

There's also a setting of a few of the Odes of Solomon by Alan Hovhaness, and Joaquin Rodrigo (yes, the one who composed Concierto de Aranjuez) set some "Qumran Neophyte Hymns" to music.

There ought to be more "extracanonical music", but ought not the music it is set to be a bit more "heretical" too? :)